How to Upload a Minecraft World to Your Server

Want to continue playing a world you built in singleplayer, or move your world from another host? This guide walks you through every step to get your world uploaded and running correctly.

Before You Start

Make sure you have the following ready:

Access to your server's control panel at panel.spillhosting.no
Your world folder saved on your computer (or downloaded from another host)
A basic idea of what your world folder is named

Step 1 — Stop Your Server

Before touching any files, you need to stop the server. Uploading files while the server is running can cause corruption or the server may overwrite your upload.

Go to panel.spillhosting.no
Select your Minecraft server
Click the Stop button and wait until the server status shows as offline

Step 2 — Find Your World Folder

From Singleplayer (Windows)

Your singleplayer worlds are stored here:

%APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves\

To open this folder quickly:

Press Windows + R on your keyboard
Type %APPDATA%\.minecraft\saves\ and press Enter
You'll see a folder for each of your singleplayer worlds
Copy the folder of the world you want to upload to somewhere easy to find, like your Desktop

From Another Hosting Provider

Log in to your old host's control panel
Use their file manager or SFTP client to navigate to the server's root directory
Download the world folder (usually named world, but could be named differently)
Make sure you also download world_nether and world_the_end if they exist — these contain your Nether and End dimensions

What a Valid World Folder Looks Like

Your world folder should contain files and folders like these:

world/
├── level.dat
├── level.dat_old
├── region/
├── playerdata/
├── data/
└── (possibly more folders depending on your version)

Important: If your folder does not contain level.dat, it is not a valid world folder and the server will not be able to load it.

Step 3 — Delete the Old World on Your Server

Before uploading your world, remove the existing world folders from your server to avoid conflicts.

In the control panel, click the Files tab
Look for these folders and delete them if they exist:
- world
- world_nether
- world_the_end
To delete a folder, right-click it and select Delete, or check the checkbox next to it and use the delete option

Note: If you want to keep the old world as a backup, rename the folders instead of deleting them (e.g. rename world to world_old).

Step 4 — Upload Your World Folder

Option A — Upload via the File Manager (easiest)

In the Files tab, make sure you are in the root directory of your server (you should see files like server.properties, eula.txt, etc.)
Click the Upload button
Select your world folder from your computer

Tip: Most control panels do not support uploading full folders directly. If that's the case, zip your world folder first (right-click the folder → Send to → Compressed (zipped) folder on Windows), then upload the .zip file. Once uploaded, right-click the zip file in the file manager and select Unarchive or Extract.

Option B — Upload via SFTP (for large worlds)

For large worlds, SFTP is more reliable than the browser-based uploader. If you've never used SFTP before, check out our full SFTP guide which walks you through the whole setup.

Download an SFTP client like FileZilla (free)
In the control panel, go to Settings and find your SFTP credentials (host, port, username, password)
Connect to your server with FileZilla
Navigate to the root directory of your server on the right side
Drag and drop your world folder from your computer (left side) to the server (right side)
Wait for the transfer to complete — this can take a while for large worlds

Step 5 — Make Sure the World Name is Correct

Minecraft loads the world based on the level-name setting in server.properties. By default this is set to world, meaning Minecraft will look for a folder called world.

You have two options:

Option A — Rename Your World Folder to `world` (recommended)

In the Files tab, find your uploaded world folder
Right-click it and select Rename
Rename it to world
Also rename world_nether and world_the_end accordingly if you uploaded them

Option B — Change `level-name` in `server.properties`

If you want to keep your world folder's original name:

In the Files tab, click on server.properties to open it
Find the line that says:
```
level-name=world
```
Change world to the exact name of your uploaded folder, for example:
```
level-name=MyEpicWorld
```
Important: The name is case-sensitive. MyEpicWorld and myepicworld are treated as different folders.
Save the file

Step 6 — Start Your Server

Go back to the main panel page for your server
Click the Start button
Watch the console — it should show messages about loading chunks and generating spawn
Once the server is fully started, join and verify your world loaded correctly

Troubleshooting

The server starts but the world looks wrong or is a new world:

Double-check that the folder name matches the level-name in server.properties exactly (case-sensitive)
Make sure the world folder contains level.dat
Check that you uploaded the folder itself, not just its contents

The server crashes on startup:

Check the console for error messages
The most common cause is a version mismatch — make sure the server version matches the version the world was created on
Try using the same server software (Vanilla, Spigot, Paper, etc.) as the original world

The upload is too slow or fails:

Use SFTP (Option B above) for large worlds instead of the browser uploader
Make sure your internet connection is stable during the upload

Nether and End are missing or reset:

Upload world_nether and world_the_end folders alongside your main world folder
Make sure all three folder names match the level-name pattern: [level-name], [level-name]_nether, [level-name]_the_end

Still having issues? Contact our support team and we'll help you get your world up and running.